Kathy Merritt’s display of five jams and jellies got the ‘Best of Show’ ribbon out of around 300-400 entries in the Open Preserved Foods category of the 96th Pennsylvania Farm Show.
KATHY MERRITT
BY ROBERT L. BAKER
Kathy Merritt of Nicholson is a systems technician in the Keystone College IT department by day.
But her real passion is canning jams and jellies, and last week she got the thrill of her life when she learned that her 5-jar display not only took first place in the jams and jellies department, but she got a ‘Best in Show’ of all the canned goods at the 96th Pennsylvnaia Farm Show in Harrisburg.
That was best out of 300-400 canned items brought in from across the Commonwealth.
Inspired by her parents who always had something to be put up while she was growing up, Merritt said that last year she and her husband had their biggest year yet and put up around 2,000 jars of jams and jellies during the summer months which they market at craft shows and other venues
On their 27-acre farm about a couple of miles out from the heart of Nicholson in Susquehanna County, the Merritts grow many different kinds of fruit – strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, peaches, grapes and more. They pride themselves in not using anything more than necessary in their product.
“Fruit, sugar and pectin. That’s all that goes in it,” Merritt said.
“We had been canning for years, but when we started growing berries about five years ago, it just seemed like the natural thing to do as a means of extending the berries’ life,” a jubilant Merritt said Sunday after returning from Harrisburg.
She had taken her items down to the Farm Show earlier in the year and left them as she had dutifully done the four years previous.
Having received three first places in the 2011Pennsylvaniafarm Show, she said she felt she had mastered what the judges were looking for, “but to pull off the ‘best in show,’ this is absolutely thrilling. We did not expect this at all and it is a very big deal to us.”
She said she thought she had something special using quilted canning jars and knowing that the jellies would be judged on their clear appearance and the jellies on texture, she had arranged them in a nice color consistency from darkness to light.
The peach-pineapple jam, apple jelly, grape jelly, mint jelly and raspberry jam were all also flavorful.
The peach-pineapple is a new concoction this year, and the mint was so last year, and what she has in the bag of tricks for 2012, she’s not telling.
But it’s bound to be good.
She said that while the awards are nice, she can tell when she’s done a good job long before she drops her wares off at a judge’s table.
“The biggest satisfaction I get is when somebody tastes a jam or jelly and you can see the look on their face,” Merritt said. “That’s all worth it.”
OTHER WINNERS
From Susquehanna County: Darren Wallace to a first place in youth crafts; Cassie Clark of Kozy Kountry Fram, Springville, took four first places and two 2nd places for her beef cattle, and a 5th place for her market swine; Sabina Clar of Springville took a 3rd place for her market swine; Jamie Supancik of New Milford took two first places for her crossbred market swine; Bernard Zembrzycki took a 5th place for his crosssbred market swine; Gina Walsh of Dalton took a 6th place for her crossbred market swine; John Walsh of Dalton and Trenton Finch of Springville each took an 8th place for their crossbred market swine; Maggie Kowalewski of Forest City and Greg Kowalewski of Forest City each took a 13th place for their Yorkshire market swine; and in the junior crossbred market lambs, Devin Hollenbeck and Dempsey Hollenbeck of Kingsley each took fifth places and Dylan Hollenbeck of Kingsley took an eighth place.
In statewide 4-H competitions, Lia Heath of Susquehanna took two 2nds; Kaylin Trynoski of Thompson took a first and a 3rd; Zebulun Swartley of Friendsville took a first, a 2nd and two 3rds; Giovanni Swartley of Friendsville took two 2nds; and Samantha Irwin of Susquehanna took a 3rd.
From Wyoming County: Sherwood Groves Farm of Tunkhannock took three first places and a second place in the Belgian Horse – Halter Classes; Cale Staruch from Shupp’s Farm, Tunkhannock took three first places and a sixth place for his Guernsey calves; Dale and Judy Shupp of Tunkhannock took a third place for their Guernsey calf; Danielle Heid of Meshoppen took a 2nd , 3rd, and 6th place for her Boer goats; Tyler Peterson took an eighth place for his purebred market swine; Brianna Smarkusky took an 11th place for her crossbred market swine; and Amanda Ruark of Meshoppen took an 11th place for her Alpne dairy goats.
Be the first to comment on "Preserves merit ‘Best’ in Farm Show"